In a brief update to the Ridgecrest city council on Wednesday, Ridgecrest's finance director provided rough budget projections for the 2014 fiscal year.

As of the end of September, Rachelle McQuiston is projecting the city to end with $83,700 in its general fund, $59,000 for its Gas Tax Fund and $2,500 for the city's transit fund.

"It is still way too early to have very meaningful numbers … I can't stress enough that this is so early on in the fiscal year," McQuiston said. "But we are establishing a monthly discussion on our projections."

Ridgecrest received a pleasant surprise in the form of a carryover surplus of $2 million from the 2013 fiscal year, in large part because of cuts in December 2012, stringent budget conservation tactics and from receiving unexpected one-time money.

Information was not available for a public projection at the council meeting, but McQuiston added that her department had just finished closing out data for September. The report, however, can be found on the city's website, she said.

Councilman Steven Morgan called the report, however rough it may be, a step in the right direction.

"I do really appreciate this and understand that (your department) was under the gun," Morgan said.

Councilman Jim Sanders proposed tabling the discussion of the early projections to another meeting "so the public has an opportunity" to look at it.

"I understand not having enough time to get things out until the last minute, and I have no problem discussing this item two weeks later," Sanders said.

Resident Jerry Taylor proposed some ideas for the report, including providing visual graphs rather than a long list of raw data or a summary sheet.

"I think a graphical representation would be helpful to the public and some of the councilmembers," Taylor said.